I've been a bad, bad girl.

So, I haven't posted in forever. I like my posts to be well-thought-out, and HUC is eating my life. In a good way. But Karen called me out on not posting a couple weeks back, so I think now it's time to post. So, I was going to post about Sukkot, but that didn't actually happen. So, very briefly, I attended my first ever Sukkot services. You may be asking, "Sara, aren't you super Jew? Didn't you grow up at a Jewish school? Haven't you literally been a professional Jew for the past however many years? How can you have NEVER gone to a Sukkot service before?" Well, I don't know the answer to that question, but there's a first time for everything! It was really interesting. I went to Shira Hadasha since I wanted a more traditional experience in which I could also participate. Mostly, the service looks like a traditional festival service, but there are a bunch of parts where you wave the lulav (palm branch thingy with two other kinds of trees, used in conjunction with this yellow fruit called an etrog), such as at the end of Hallel. There's also this part called Hoshanot in which everyone takes their lulavs and walks in a circle waving them. Since Shira Hadasha has a mechitza, the women and men each made their own circle. It was easily the coolest thing I have ever seen happen in a service. I want to go to Sukkot services every year! Not that I have a choice in the matter anymore ;) Also, I would love to give you an idea of what Sukkot looks like in Jerusalem.

Every kosher restaurant has a sukkah because much of their clientele feel halachically obligated to eat in it. Also, it's just nice to sit and eat in the sukkah. There were some streets that you could barely walk down because of all the sukkahs. Not going to talk about Simchat Torah, as my experience was pretty standard Reform, but I did get to play guitar both in the evening and in the morning, so that was nice.

I was also going to talk about what happened at the Kotel on the night that Hadassah came to visit in October. I got most of my anger out on Facebook, but I do want to say that what happened was deeply disturbing. It was Hadassah's 100th anniversary convention, but they were not able to come to the Kotel on Rosh Chodesh, so Women of the Wall invited them to come the night before. HUC students were volunteering at the event, and those of us who sing had prepared to lead them in song. The police were eyeing us from the beginning. When the Hadassah women got there, Anat Hoffman gave a quick speech, and then my friend Alli led everyone in the Sh'ma, the prayer/verse that many, myself included, find to be most central to Judaism. By the time we were done, Anat had been arrested for supposedly saying the Sh'ma too loudly. Utter madness ensued. Haredim were screaming at us and arguing with us. Those of us who were brave enough argued back. People were arguing with the police. It was scary, but I felt empowered to be there and support the cause. Anywhere else, this would be termed religious discrimination, but not in Israel. Let me be clear that Anat did NOT get arrested because of kol isha (the concept that men aren't supposed to hear women's voices). They usually only arrest people for wearing a talit. They never arrest the service leaders unless they're wearing a manly talit or something. And even then I've usually seen them wait until after that part of the service is over. They basically just arrested her because she's one of the leaders of the organization and they wanted to scare the rest of us. I haven't worn a talit to the wall the past couple of months. I wouldn't have a problem getting arrested for a cause I believe in, but I worry that my visa might be in jeopardy if I do. Maybe I'll once again be brave enough at a later date.

And now, the thing you all are really wondering about, judging by all of the "happy birthday" wall posts coming from America: Yes, I have been safe. The first azakah (alarm) was scary, as I was walking to services alone and had no idea what to do. I decided to keep walking to services after it was over, since services were in a basement and many of my friends were there. And it was Nava Tehila, meaning said basement was filled with awesome music. I did feel the need to tweak my Shabbat dinner plans in order to be able to walk home with my neighbors, and I'm glad I did because I felt so much safer. There was a second azakah during liturgy class on Tuesday and we all had to go into the bomb shelter. Fortunately, Hamas really can't aim. They're terrible. They ended up hitting an uninhabited area in a Palestinian village in the West Bank, which is also bad but is clearly less scary for me than if they had hit Jerusalem. When I think about it, even though being scared is perfectly valid and the emotional half of my brain wanted to be scared while everything was happening, the logical half of my brain told me something different. I have almost gotten hit by more cars than I can count since I have been here in Jerusalem. I have heard two azakot. Shouldn't I be more scared of being hit by a car? In any case, there's a ceasefire now. Let's hope it holds. If I were to have my choice, I'd much rather spend the rest of my year worrying about not getting run over by a car.

We were able to get our minds off what was going on with our tiyul (trip) to the Arava (in the south, but on the other side of the country where it was clearly safe). We saw a crater in the desert that wasn't really a crater (there's a Hebrew word for it but none in English), and three of us gave speeches about how it was created and then the class had to guess which was correct. I gave a speech about how a meteor hit in that area and killed all the kosher dinosaurs. But it turned out that the crater thing was actually created by "total pwnage." We then got to take a gorgeous hike in the crater thingy. The next day, we hiked up this mountain called Har Shlomo. Israel does not do "trails" the way America does. I would say this was closer to rock climbing than hiking. I used to be really afraid of heights and had thought I had gotten over that fear, but apparently I didn't because I had a quasi panic attack. For a good reason: There was a ledge where you had to hold onto a handrail in order not to fall off the mountain. But everyone on the hike was supportive of each other, and we all made it to the top. Special shout out to Ari and Max for their mad cheerleading skills. And the view was spectacular.

The way down was also pretty scary. But don't worry; I only fell down one cliff, and someone caught me, so I'd say it was a successful day! But seriously, that was one AMAZING hike and I'm so glad I pushed myself to do it. When we got back to the kibbutz, we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner cooked by some classmates. There may have been some Madlibs at the table. I may not want to repeat said Madlibs. There was also lots and lots of pie. I really like pie. And I learned a new game called Cards Against Humanity, which is like Apples to Apples but better. Other things that happened on this trip include going to another kibbutz and making mud bricks, eating ice cream at a kibbutz that has a giant dairy factory (sorry, Nick, I forgot to take pictures), and snorkeling in the Red Sea. Also, Shabbat was really cool. It began with services. We split the service in half. My friends Danny and Sam led Kabbalat Shabbat, and I led Ma'ariv with my friend Chase. It was a lot of fun. The zemirot after dinner, which my friend Jordan and I led, were equally fun. The rest of Shabbat was sort of a blur, though I really enjoyed the Saturday morning service, since it involved the "Free Willy" song. By that point, my sinuses had decided to take revenge on the fact that I was not firmer in demanding antibiotics from the doctor I saw prior to the trip (they don't seem to like to give them out in this country, and while I don't think they should be available on demand, this is one instance where I know my body better than any doctor). Oh well, at least I used Shabbat for what it was meant for: REST. Overall, it was a really good tiyul, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with my classmates. I'm so glad that these are the people who will be my future colleagues.